Whatever happened to Northern Crown

[dougmander]

Thanks for the chorus of support -- wow! I'll try to address a few of the questions raised by other posters in this thread.

Orson Scott Card Alvin Maker series: check.
J. Gregory Keyes: too late to really influence Northern Crown, but very compatible in spirit.
Turtledove: haven't read it.
Wellman: a long time ago, but made a big impression.

Sadly, there are no Northern Crown products in development -- I simply don't have the time right now (grad school-full employment-toddler at home). If I did, I'd be working on the Boston campaign supplement, which Gareth at Adamant would probably still publish. Gareth is a huge Northern Crown fan but the two issues of the PDF zine I did for Adamant just didn't sell, so we agreed not to produce a third. Still, between The Caves of Chisca full-length intro adventure, and the full-length adventure The Onondaga Mission in Franklyn's Almanack #2, there are many hours of Northern Crown adventure awaiting anyone who invests in the two setting books, and I feel good to have put those adventures out there for that reason.

My sense is that the audience for alternate-history d20 settings is relatively small, and that makes publishing support materials problematic from an economic standpoint. That doesn't mean that at some point, I wouldn't write more stuff for Northern Crown anyway, just to share it with y'all. I love writing for RPGs and will get back to it eventually, I'm sure.

Thanks again.

 

[Tonguez]

Doug I think I have the two adventures that were on the Septentrionalis site stashed somewhere (iirc one involved gunrunners and Shawnee, the other involved Ghouls in the Church graveyard)

Would it not be relatively simple to make these available to appease the masses?

 

[DMH]

I will be getting this next week or so. JAGS (a free rpg) has a magic rich early America setting that might be of some use: http://www.jagsrpg.org/modules.php?...ads&file=index&req=viewdownloaddetails&lid=49

 

[Tetsubo]

I'm interested in this setting. How does it handle New England?

 

[jdrakeh]

I will be getting this next week or so. JAGS (a free rpg) has a magic rich early America setting that might be of some use: http://www.jagsrpg.org/modules.php?...ads&file=index&req=viewdownloaddetails&lid=49

I have a printed and bound copy of C-13 and it's full of good ideas (I simply am not a big fan of them system). I plan on porting the 'magic spell as tech' outlook into my planned Northern Crown campaign, as soon as an opportunity presents itself.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm interested in this setting. How does it handle New England?

A kingdom of witches beyond the edge of puritan civilization, with natives in the mix as well.

 

[Qualidar]

Boston and a few other towns surrounded by a city of witches and hostile First One tribes. The good thing about it is that you could play any side: noble puritan settlers against devil worshiping infiltrators and bloodthirsty Mohawk raiders, or free-spitited wicans fighting aginst the religious intollerance of the Puritan WitchHunters, or Mohawk druids and warriors defending against the Europan invasion into their magical lands.

 

[Leatherfut]

Sadly, there are no Northern Crown products in development -- I simply don't have the time right now (grad school-full employment-toddler at home).

Hey, how do you do all of that? I chase a toddler around all day and have no time for anything else.

My sense is that the audience for alternate-history d20 settings is relatively small, and that makes publishing support materials problematic from an economic standpoint. That doesn't mean that at some point, I wouldn't write more stuff for Northern Crown anyway, just to share it with y'all. I love writing for RPGs and will get back to it eventually, I'm sure.

I have to wonder if d20 hurt the sales of your game. I know this isn't the usual thinking, d20 sells better than everything else. I thought the premise of the game was very interesting before it came out, but when it was released I passed over it because it sounded like it was d&d slapped on to colonial America. Now that I've come back and read all the reviews, previews, free adventure and forum threads, there is obviously much more to this game and it looks great.
My point is that it didn't seem to appeal to the d&d players and on the surface seemed wrong to those that didn't like d&d but wanted to play early America.
No offense to you, Doug. I think you did a great job. Thanks for chiming in and giving us the low down.

Happy Gaming,
Frank

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The good news is that any great game setting- and NC is one- that gets sufficient publicity is going to get sales from people who want to convert it to their preferred RPG system.

 

[jdrakeh]

The good news is that any great game setting- and NC is one- that gets sufficient publicity is going to get sales from people who want to convert it to their preferred RPG system.

I suspect that the number of gamers with the free time and dedication to do wholesale setting conversions is extremely tiny.